493 research outputs found
Implications of the Top Quark Mass Measurement for the CKM Parameters, and CP Asymmetries
Motivated by the recent determination of the top quark mass by the CDF
collaboration, \mt =174 \pm 10 ^{+13}_{-12} GeV, we review and update the
constraints on the parameters of the quark flavour mixing matrix in
the standard model. In performing our fits, we use inputs from the measurements
of the following quantities: (i) \abseps, the CP-violating parameter in
decays, (ii) \delmd, the mass difference due to the \bdbdbar\ mixing, (iii)
the matrix elements \absvcb and \absvub, and (iv) -hadron lifetimes. We
find that the allowed region of the unitarity triangle is very large, mostly
due to theoretical uncertainties. (This emphasizes the importance of
measurements of CP-violating rate asymmetries in the system.) Nevertheless,
the present data do somewhat restrict the allowed values of the coupling
constant product and the renormalization-scale
invariant bag constant . With the updated CKM matrix we present the
currently-allowed range of the ratio , as well as
the standard model predictions for the \bsbsbar\ mixing parameter \xs and the
quantities , and , which characterize
the CP-asymmetries in -decays. The ALEPH collaboration has recently reported
a significant improvement on the lower limit on the \bs-\bsb mass
difference, (95\% C.L.). This has interesting
consequences for the CKM parameters which are also worked out.
NOTE: this is a revised and updated version of our previous paper.Comment: LaTeX, 27 pages, 16 uuencoded figures (enclosed), CERN-TH.7398/94,
UdeM-GPP-TH-94-0
Rare K and B Decays in a Warped Extra Dimension with Custodial Protection
We present a complete study of rare K and B meson decays in a warped extra
dimensional model with a custodial protection of (both diagonal and
non-diagonal) Z d_L^i \bar d_L^j couplings, including K^+ -> pi^+ nu anti-nu,
K_L -> pi^0 nu anti-nu, K_L -> pi^0 l^+ l^-, K_L -> mu^+ mu^-, B_{s,d} -> mu^+
mu^-, B -> K nu anti-nu, B -> K^* nu anti-nu and B -> X_{s,d} nu anti-nu. In
this model in addition to Standard Model one loop contributions these processes
receive tree level contributions from the Z boson and the new heavy electroweak
gauge bosons. We analyse all these contributions that turn out to be dominated
by tree level Z boson exchanges governed by right-handed couplings to down-type
quarks. Imposing all existing constraints from Delta F=2 transitions analysed
by us recently and fitting all quark masses and CKM mixing parameters we find
that a number of branching ratios for rare K decays can differ significantly
from the SM predictions, while the corresponding effects in rare B decays are
modest, dominantly due to the custodial protection being more effective in B
decays than in K decays. In order to reduce the parameter dependence we study
correlations between various observables within the K system, within the B
system and in particular between K and B systems, and also between Delta F=2
and Delta F=1 observables. These correlations allow for a clear distinction
between this new physics scenario and models with minimal flavour violation or
the Littlest Higgs Model with T-parity, and could give an opportunity to future
experiments to confirm or rule out the model. We show how our results would
change if the custodial protection of Z d_L^i bar d^j_L couplings was absent.
In the case of rare B decays the modifications are spectacular.Comment: 50 pages, 17 figures. v2: minor clarifying comments and references
added. v3: few clarifying comments added, matches published versio
How to measure redshift-space distortions without sample variance
We show how to use multiple tracers of large-scale density with different
biases to measure the redshift-space distortion parameter
beta=f/b=(dlnD/dlna)/b (where D is the growth rate and a the expansion factor),
to a much better precision than one could achieve with a single tracer, to an
arbitrary precision in the low noise limit. In combination with the power
spectrum of the tracers this allows a much more precise measurement of the
bias-free velocity divergence power spectrum, f^2 P_m - in fact, in the low
noise limit f^2 P_m can be measured as well as would be possible if velocity
divergence was observed directly, with rms improvement factor ~[5.2(beta^2+2
beta+2)/beta^2]^0.5 (e.g., ~10 times better than a single tracer for beta=0.4).
This would allow a high precision determination of f D as a function of
redshift with an error as low as 0.1%. We find up to two orders of magnitude
improvement in Figure of Merit for the Dark Energy equation of state relative
to Stage II, a factor of several better than other proposed Stage IV Dark
Energy surveys. The ratio b_2/b_1 will be determined with an even greater
precision than beta, producing, when measured as a function of scale, an
exquisitely sensitive probe of the onset of non-linear bias. We also extend in
more detail previous work on the use of the same technique to measure
non-Gaussianity. Currently planned redshift surveys are typically designed with
signal to noise of unity on scales of interest, and are not optimized for this
technique. Our results suggest that this strategy may need to be revisited as
there are large gains to be achieved from surveys with higher number densities
of galaxies.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figure
Ground state properties of ferromagnetic metal/conjugated polymer interfaces
We theoretically investigate the ground state properties of ferromagnetic
metal/conjugated polymer interfaces. The work is partially motivated by recent
experiments in which injection of spin polarized electrons from ferromagnetic
contacts into thin films of conjugated polymers was reported. We use a
one-dimensional nondegenerate Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) Hamiltonian to
describe the conjugated polymer and one-dimensional tight-binding models to
describe the ferromagnetic metal. We consider both a model for a conventional
ferromagnetic metal, in which there are no explicit structural degrees of
freedom, and a model for a half-metallic ferromagnetic colossal
magnetoresistance (CMR) oxide which has explicit structural degrees of freedom.
The Fermi energy of the magnetic metallic contact is adjusted to control the
degree of electron transfer into the polymer. We investigate electron charge
and spin transfer from the ferromagnetic metal to the organic polymer, and
structural relaxation near the interface. Bipolarons are the lowest energy
charge state in the bulk polymer for the nondegenerate SSH model Hamiltonian.
As a result electrons (or holes) transferred into the bulk of the polymer form
spinless bipolarons. However, there can be spin density in the polymer
localized near the interface.Comment: 7 figure
The cosmic gravitational wave background in a cyclic universe
Inflation predicts a primordial gravitational wave spectrum that is slightly
``red,'' i.e., nearly scale-invariant with slowly increasing power at longer
wavelengths. In this paper, we compute both the amplitude and spectral form of
the primordial tensor spectrum predicted by cyclic/ekpyrotic models. The
spectrum is blue and exponentially suppressed compared to inflation on long
wavelengths. The strongest observational constraint emerges from the
requirement that the energy density in gravitational waves should not exceed
around 10 per cent of the energy density at the time of nucleosynthesis.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figuer
Fine and ultrafine particles from indoor sources – Effects on healthy humans in a controlled exposure study and on lung epithelial cells in vitro
In recent years increasing concern has been expressed about the potential adverse health effects of particles from indoor sources. The aims of the EPIA project were: (1) to characterize potentially relevant indoor sources of (ultra)fine particles with respect to their emission levels and composition and (2) to investigate their adverse health effects. We investigated the effects of emissions from candle burning (CB), toasting of bread (TB) and sausage frying (FS) in a randomized, cross-over sham-controlled exposure study in healthy adults as well as in vitro in A549 human lung epithelial cells. Participants were exposed for 2 h to each of these sources at two different exposure levels, and examined before, during and after the exposures at defined time-intervals. We found transient associations between exposures and several respiratory and cardiovascular effects as well as inflammatory changes (e.g. lung function, blood pressure, arterial stiffness, interleukin-8 in nasal lavage/blood). Specific effects were found to depend strongly on the emission source and the selected exposure metric (e.g. size-specific particle mass concentration, size-specific particle number concentration, lung deposited surface area concentration). Evaluation of PM2.5 samples in the A549 cells, revealed an increased interleukin-8 release and DNA strand breakage induction for toasting, whereas candle burning only resulted in DNA damage. The results from our project demonstrate that elevated concentrations from certain indoor emission sources may lead to changes in the lung and cardiovascular systems as well as possibly induce inflammation
Investigating dark energy experiments with principal components
We use a principal component approach to contrast different kinds of probes
of dark energy, and to emphasize how an array of probes can work together to
constrain an arbitrary equation of state history w(z). We pay particular
attention to the role of the priors in assessing the information content of
experiments and propose using an explicit prior on the degree of smoothness of
w(z) that is independent of the binning scheme. We also show how a figure of
merit based on the mean squared error probes the number of new modes
constrained by a data set, and use it to examine how informative various
experiments will be in constraining the evolution of dark energy.Comment: A significantly expanded version with an added PCA for weak lensing,
a new detailed discussion of the correlation prior proposed in this work, and
a new discussion outlining the differences between the Bayesian and the
frequentist approaches to reconstructing w(z). Matches the version accepted
to JCAP. 8 pages, 2 figure
The dark side of curvature
Geometrical tests such as the combination of the Hubble parameter H(z) and
the angular diameter distance d_A(z) can, in principle, break the degeneracy
between the dark energy equation of state parameter w(z), and the spatial
curvature Omega_k in a direct, model-independent way. In practice, constraints
on these quantities achievable from realistic experiments, such as those to be
provided by Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) galaxy surveys in combination
with CMB data, can resolve the cosmic confusion between the dark energy
equation of state parameter and curvature only statistically and within a
parameterized model for w(z). Combining measurements of both H(z) and d_A(z) up
to sufficiently high redshifts around z = 2 and employing a parameterization of
the redshift evolution of the dark energy equation of state are the keys to
resolve the w(z)-Omega_k degeneracy.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Minor changes, matches version accepted in JCA
Phenomenological Determination of the Beauty Meson Decay Parameter and the CP-Violating Angle
We fit the -matrix to all recent data with the following free
parameters: three mixing angles, the CP-violating angle in the Maiani
parametrisation, the top quark mass , and the product f_B{\cal
B}_{\B}^{1/2}, where is the -meson decay parameter and {\cal
B}_{\B} is the bag parameter. Our fits span a contiguous region in the
(f_B{\cal B}_{\B}^{1/2},\ \cos\delta)--plane, limited by 0.117\lsim f_B{\cal
B}_{\B}^{1/2}/{\rm GeV}\lsim 0.231 and --0.95 \lsim \lsim
0.70. The parameters f_B{\cal B}_{\B}^{1/2} and are strongly
positively correlated.Comment: 9 pages + 1 figure available upon request, HU-TFT-94-3
Electroweak and Flavour Structure of a Warped Extra Dimension with Custodial Protection
We present the electroweak and flavour structure of a model with a warped
extra dimension and the bulk gauge group SU(3) x SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R x P_LR x
U(1)_X. The presence of SU(2)_R implies an unbroken custodial symmetry in the
Higgs system allowing to eliminate large contributions to the T parameter,
whereas the P_LR symmetry and the enlarged fermion representations provide a
custodial symmetry for flavour diagonal and flavour changing couplings of the
SM Z boson to left-handed down-type quarks. We diagonalise analytically the
mass matrices of charged and neutral gauge bosons including the first KK modes.
We present the mass matrices for quarks including heavy KK modes and discuss
the neutral and charged currents involving light and heavy fields. We give the
corresponding complete set of Feynman rules in the unitary gauge.Comment: 74 pages, 2 figures. clarifying comments and references added,
version to be published in JHE
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